Embracing Canadian culture though community...

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Also in this issue

Vol 16 No 13 | January 26–February 9, 2016

Since

1999

Tibetan community – close-knit, non-judgmentalPage 2

Performer questions ethnicity and post-colonialism0

Aboriginal artist focuses on women and cultural belongingPage 6

Rooted in Vancouver

by SuSan Hancock

See “Verbatim” page 9

by auguSt BramHoff

See “Integration” page 11

Our lifestyle gives us a sense of belonging; it gives us our iden-tity which is vital for our well-being and happiness. When newcomers arrive in Canada, they have to rebuild their friendships and connections to help them feel welcome.

Queenie Choo is the chief ex-ecutive officer at S.U.C.C.E.S.S., a multi-service agency assisting immigrants and Canadians. She can relate to the challenges of other immigrants who are going through the settlement process.

newcomers need to embrace what it means to be Canadian to achieve their full potential.

When Choo arrived in Canada many years ago she had a choice. She could remain sheltered in a familiar Japanese culture, or she could branch out to learn what it means to be a Canadian.

“I wanted to talk about my cul-ture to Canadians,” says Choo. “I wanted people to understand where I was coming from. I also wanted them to know that I was willing to learn about Canadian culture and customs.”

Immigrants have to rebuild their friendships and community

connections when they move to a new country. They have to rely on other people’s kindness to discover a pathway to assimilate into a new culture.

Adjusting to Canadian society Tanvir Hossain, 30, emigrated to Vancouver two months ago from Bangladesh, India. He was tired of the corruption in Bangladesh and was looking for a place to call home.

“I needed a change, says Hos-sain. “I wanted to live in a safer place with less corruption.”

Prior to leaving Bangladesh, Hossain connected with Multi-

Embracing Canadian culture though community connections

“Newcomers need to find the courage to contribute to society, says Choo. “It’s important for them to venture from what feels comfortable in their immediate surroundings so they can learn about our Canadian culture.”

Choo is referring to newcomers who have difficulties integrat-ing into Canadian culture. She explains that immigrants tend to settle in neighbourhoods that have a similar culture to their homeland. In the short term it’s comforting to be with people with similar backgrounds, languages and customs: in the longterm it’s limiting. Choo suggests that

When I’m out and about in Vancouver, be it at a

party, shopping or shelter-ing rainy hours away at a cof-fee shop, people often ask me, “Where are you from?” Perhaps it’s based on statis-tics; so many people pass the Rocky Mountains and call this city home, but the question-ers come across as genuinely perplexed. One guesser of na-tionalities insists, “Your giant curly hair – you must be Irish, right?” Another player sug-gests, “You’re so artsy – have you spent any time in Mon-treal?” and “Don’t you have a sister in Newfoundland – you look exactly like a close friend of mine.” If I had not lived my whole life in Greater Vancou-ver, it would seem as though I’m a composite of the greater part of the Northern Hemi-sphere. In a way, everyone stands correct. I would not be the person I am if I had not grown up in Vancouver. Allow me to explain.

My mom’s side of the family came from across Europe. The first to British Columbia were the Welsh members: tempted to break free from Britain’s classism, they settled in the 1800s just outside Prince George, breeding apples in an orchard that still stands by a creek. The Italians came next: Great Uncle Primo and Great Grandad were miners who drilled holes in the side of mountains for the newly-formed Canadian Pacific Railway. Great Grandad met Great Grandma in a town so remote it has its own postal code today. Petite, quiet and all the way from Poland, Great Grandma couldn’t speak a word of English or Italian. While Great Grandad and Great Grandma were getting to know each other, the Irish side of my roots were sailing

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2 The Source Vol 16 No 13 | January 26–February 9, 2016

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by BrEnna tEmPlE

Vancouver’s Tibetans will celebrate Losar, their cul-ture’s New Year, Feb. 8. This year, the Kagyu Kunkhyab Chuling Centre will celebrate Losar with a series of dif-ferent traditions, including meditation sessions and spe-cial Protector Mahakala cere-monies to ring in the Tibetan New Year.

Lobsang Tenzin calls himself a dharma believer and teacher who’s immersed in Vancouver’s Tibetan culture. He says Losar is all about recognizing the op-portunity to accept adversity and think positively.

“Losar is about cleansing yourself and dropping all your prejudices you have against other people. That’s a big one, you forgive everybody. It’s about forgiving all the people who have wronged you and spoke badly about you, or what-ever it is,” says Tenzin.

Tibetan culture budding in Vancouver community Losar is a celebration that’s traveled from China’s cultural landscape all the way to Canada.

According to Tenzin, Tibetan

February marks Tibetan New Year with goal of positive thinking

The only enduring happiness is to truly know the joy of making others happy.Lobsang Tenzin, Dharma believer and teacher

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Locals celebrating Tibet Fest 2013 in Vancouver.

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certain understanding of kar-ma and interdependence,” says Tenzin. “The only enduring hap-piness is to truly know the joy of making others happy. We’re never happier than when we’re self lessly useful.”

Tenzin describes the Tibetan

interests of people here: two concepts Westerners don’t al-ways get right away,” says Ten-zin. “Tibetans are often quiet because in Tibet there’s a high altitude and you can’t talk as much.”

Losar dishes: expansive as Tibetan cultureAccording to Tenzin, Losar dishes are expansive due to the culture’s accepting attitude and include both vegetables and meat.

“You often see momos, which are little dumplings. They’re

not necessarily vegetarian. You eat what’s served,” says Ten-zin. “You don’t turn your nose up when someone has gone to the trouble of making a feast for you. You are polite and there are no absolutes, except in your own intention because that’s

the only thing you have one hundred per cent control over.”

Canada’s Tibetan historyThe population of Tibetans with-in Canada is difficult to find. Ac-cording to the Canada Tibet Com-mittee, Canada has been home to the philosophy of Tibet for years.

culture has a strong influence in Vancouver, although many people aren’t aware. The phi-losophies of Buddhism are en-compassed by much of today’s Tibetan culture, regardless of the location.

“Everyone in Vancouver has a

belief as a positive philosophy that discourages judgment: a factor that makes the culture within Vancouver close-knit.

“Buddha dharma is a growing philosophy; and not a religion based on faith, but based on logic. You’re allowed to debate, and you’re not allowed to swal-low anything because you have to challenge it and defend,” says Tenzin.

He explains Vancouver’s Ti-betan culture as multifaceted and encourages locals to main-tain an open state of mind.

“We need to remember in-tegration and the physical

According to the website, 1971 is the first time Tibetan refu-gees arrived in Canada. At the time, the settlement of these refugees called for Quebec, On-tario, Alberta and British Co-lumbia to accept an equal num-ber of refugees.

Once an entity for only Tibet-ans, many Canadians have tak-en on the culture as their own.

“A lot of their culture doesn’t get translated because of lan-guage,” says Tenzin. “Every-one will eventually practice the Buddha Dharma found in the Tibetan culture by nature, because it’s the evolution of thought.”

Everyone is welcome to attend Losar (Feb. 6–8). Each day begins with a meditation session at 7:30 a.m. and a short Green Tara Sadhana practice at 8 a.m. The first Mahakala Puja starts at 9:30 a.m. and Tsok starts at 6 p.m.

For more information, visit www.kkc-kdol.org

Lobsang Tenzin finds peace in Tibetan culture.

The Source 3Vol 16 No 13 | January 26–February 9, 2016

Chanel Blouin, museum assis-tant at the Jewish Museum & Archives of British Columbia, is launching the online exhib-it, New Ways of Living: Jewish Architects in Vancouver, 1955–1975. The exhibit features Van-couver residential landmarks designed and built by Jew-ish architects in the postwar years in order to recognize their work and pay tribute to those architects who have contributed to the architec-tural character of the city.

Blouin, who developed and cu-rated the exhibit, will also host the opening lecture and discus-sion with several guests, includ-ing architect Judah Shumiatcher and architectural historian Rho-dri Windsor-Liscombe, at Inform Interiors in Gastown on Jan. 28.

“A lot of the architects are still around and I thought it would be really interesting to get the design and architecture commu-nities involved in this project. It seemed very timely as well, with the [Museum of Vancouver: Your Future Home] urban area exhibi-tion, on the future of Vancouver, coming up soon,” says Blouin.

Form follows functionAs part of the 45th anniversary year of the Jewish Museum & Archives of B.C.’s founding, Bl-ouin’s exhibit is part of an on-

Exhibit examines Jewish architectural influence in the postwar yearsby Simon YEE line series profiling different

facets of local Jewish history in Vancouver. Her exhibit exam-ines the ways Jewish architects who immigrated to Vancouver brought their skills, education and experiences to help develop the region’s housing in the years following World War II. With veterans returning from the war, there was an increased need for housing and Vancouver’s civic leaders felt the region needed a conscious civic renewal.

“The 1950s to 1970s was a re-markable time in Vancouver, marked by transformation and modernization. This is similar to what we’re experiencing now at the crossroads, where city plan-ning could go one way or another, similar to the postwar years,” says Blouin.

The West Coast architectural style was the response. Popular until around the mid-70s, the housing style emphasized post and beam construction, the in-tegration of interior and exterior spaces, larger open room spaces and landscape specificity, such houses built along cliffs over-looking the water and mountains, which made full use of the unique landscape of Metro Vancouver has to offer.

“In contrast to today, where prime real estates in Point Grey and West Vancouver, are built on cliffs, back then architects didn’t know how to build on those land-scapes, lacking the engineering

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Oberlander Residence I – Peter Oberlander and Leon Dirasser Architects,Landscape design Cornelia Oberlander, 1956.

know-how,” Blouin says. “The Jewish architects were some of the first to experiment on these lots, and they used their homes as a laboratory test-bed for these different ideas.”

Blouin notes the Jewish archi-tects designed housing, which served the needs of the fam-ily living there. For instance, Wolfgang Gerson, who is best known for Vancouver’s Unitar-ian Church, adapted his home to suit his needs as a musician. He designed and built a floor around his piano so his family and guests could enjoy the music, which Bl-ouin says wasn’t conventional at the time.

“There were more partitions in homes at the time. Gerson’s home was a prime example of doing something different and adapt-

ing architecture to serve the needs of families,” she says.

Understanding the ideas behind spacesThe exhibit will consist of archi-tectural plans, oral interviews with living architects or their relatives, landscape images, and other primary source materials documenting these historical residential architectures Blouin has collected in the course of her research. The talk on Jan. 28 will feature some of these materials.

Blouin, who came to Vancou-ver to study at UBC for her MA in art history, says this is her first curatorial work and exhibition, and since working on this exhibit, architecture and design has be-come an important part of her life.

“It’s been wonderful,” Blouin says. “It’s interesting to pay trib-ute to the work of these archi-tects that have helped make this city the way it is.”

Being from Montreal, Blouin was used to seeing older architec-ture. She says coming to Vancou-ver and seeing the newer and myr-iad architectural styles was a bit of shock at first, but she’s grown to love the way architecture serves the city they are located in.

“Buildings are built for a rea-son and there are ideas behind them. You feel a certain way in certain spaces, and you may not be fully aware of it, but it’s im-portant to pay attention to that,” says Blouin.

Visit the online exhibit at www.jewishmuseum.ca.


Long overdue by-elections are finally taking places to fill

two vacant seats in B.C.’s legis-lature. For a couple of months, opposition MLAs have been call-ing on Premier Christy Clark to hurry up and call the interim elections in the ridings of Van-couver-Mount Pleasant and Co-quitlam-Burke Mountain, where MLAs had resigned earlier in 2015 to run in the federal election.

Early in 2016, Clark finally obliged, setting the two by-election votes for Feb. 2. Melanie Mark is expected to win hand-ily in Mount Pleasant, one of the safest NDP seats in B.C., while a closer race is expected in Burke Mountain, where the Liberals’ margin of victory was narrower in the last provincial election. The NDP’s Jodie Wickens and B.C.

B.C. Liberals defuse Kinder Morgan pipeline issue just in time for by-elections

DErrick o'kEEfE

Left Bank

that they were hostile to business interests and couldn’t be trusted. Dix and the NDP, having waited until mid-campaign to come out with a clear position, were unable to articulate a forceful defence of their position. In countless elec-tion post-mortems, the NDP’s Kinder Morgan stance was cited as a turning point, and used by pipeline advocates to push their case for this mega-project that would see Vancouver’s harbour packed with oil export tankers.

What a difference a few years can make. With the Liberals’ own reversal on Kinder Morgan, we can perhaps now finally lay to rest the myth that the NDP’s stance was what did them in last time. In reality, the pipeline has always galvanized major concern from voters, especially in Vancou-

An oil tanker in Prince William Sound.

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January 29Learning the Art of Steel Tongue Drums with Bryn ClingwallExperience the ability of steel tongue drums to create a connection between the player and their own inner-world regardless of age or experience. Kindred Spirit drum maker and musician, Bryn Clingwall will share how this magical instrument can be used to attain a deep meditative state, for healing purposes, and for the care-free experimentation with music.

FEBruary 5Spirituality through Native Flutes with Edgar VinicioThe haunting beauty of native Flutes from around the world played by one of Canada’s most renowned world music flutists. Edgar strives promote the connectedness between people and nature through his music.

FEBruary 12A World Music Guitar Concert with Itamar ErezTo capture the essence of Itamar’s music is to be taken on a journey where different cultures meet in harmony. Itamar’s music holds a depth and sensitivity that will touch your heart; it blends the delicatessen of Middle Eastern music, the freedom found in Jazz and the passion of Flamenco, creating a unique sound all his own.

FEBruary 19Experience a Gong Bath with Kathy CameronHimalayan singing bowls and gongs produce multiple overtones that are recognized for their ability to induce a deep sense of peace, tranquility and well-being. We invite you to experience the healing power of sound.

FEBruary 26The Beauty of the Sitar with Mohamed AssaniJoin us for a mesmerizing workshop on the extraordinary Indian sitar led by renowned musician and teacher, Mohamed assani. along with his tabla accompanist, Mohamed will take us on an enthralling and emotive journey into this fascinating musical world.

AS WELL, our CoNTINuING SErIES oN TuESDAy NIGhTS - uKuLELE!

TuESdayS, January 12 To FEBruary 16Beginner ukulele with heather StubbsLearn how to play the cheerfullest instrument out there: the ukulele in a fabulously fun crash course workshop. Fee is $75 in advance for all 6 sessions and $20 drop in at the door. ukuleles can be rented for $10. all levels and all ages welcome. From 7:30pm to 8:30pm.

Join us for our: 2016 World Music SeriesJoin us for our intimate world music evenings offer workshops and sound explorations led by amazing local and international musicians. Each series includes 7 amazing performances, each of which includes both performance and instruction on the instrument. Most instruments can be rented for workshops. Each series of 7 tickets: $125. advanced single ticket: $20. at the door single ticket: $25

Join us in the netloft Building on Granville Island Friday evenings, 7:30pm to 9pm (all workshops) unless otherwise noted. To rESErVE your SPoT CaLL 604 683 7733 or email [email protected]

The more people have learned about this proposed pipeline, the more politically toxic it has become in B.C.

“Liberal Joan Isaacs will battle it out in Coquitlam, but it’s not a simple two-way race. The Green Party is running legendary punk rocker and long-time social jus-tice activist Joey Keithley, who is widely respected across party lines for his progressive politics.

For the NDP, strong showings in both by-elections will help bol-ster the party base, still shaken by the stunning electoral defeat of 2013. After 15 years of B.C. Liber-als in power, there is a strong ap-petite for political change in B.C., but also lingering doubts that the NDP can be the vehicle to inspire a broad enough coalition to oust the entrenched governing party.

Soon after calling the by-elec-tions, Clark surprised many ob-servers by announcing the Prov-ince of B.C.’s formal opposition to Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline. National En-ergy Board hearings are current-ly taking place in Burnaby, and

ver, Burnaby and the north shore here in the Lower Mainland. Be-sides that, Trans Mountain has been steadfastly opposed from the beginning by the Tsleil-Wau-tuth First Nation, who are now joined by a powerful coalition of Indigenous nations.

The more people have learned about this proposed pipeline, the more politically toxic it has be-come in B.C. Burnaby’s Mayor Derek Corrigan has gone as far as to vow to engage in civil disobe-dience to stop construction, if it comes to that. And he’s not alone. There is a diverse and dynamic cli-mate movement focused on stop-ping Kinder Morgan. The rallies taking place in Burnaby at the NEB hearings are evidence of the com-munity anger and willingness to mobilize against this pipeline.

All this helps explain the tim-ing of Premier’s Clark opposition. This is not a principled stand the Liberals are taking, but a quali-

the planned tar sands pipeline has become a lightning rod of opposition from environmental groups, affected municipalities, and local First Nations.

It’s quite a reversal for the B.C. Liberals to come out against the pipeline, especially given the way the issue played out in the 2013 campaign. At the time, Clark and the Liberals pounced on then NDP leader Adrian Dix’s announcement of opposition to Kinder Morgan’s plans. The mainstream media magnified the Liberals’ message that the NDP’s stance was proof

fied one, leaving the door open by saying they’re not in favour of Kinder Morgan “at this time.” With oil at $30/barrel and Kinder Morgan’s stock dropping, this pipeline isn’t getting built any-time soon. Maybe Clark knows, that with changes coming from the new federal government to the NEB process, this issue won’t be decided for good until after next year’s provincial election.

One thing is clear: it’s smart politics by Christy Clark to take the issue of Kinder Morgan off the table at this time.


odd years ago and they weren’t made in a time of big data,” says Chow-White.

General public invitedThe comprehensible colloquium covers a number of subjects, from Visual Analytics to Disrup-tive Technologies, culminating in the presentation of students’ final projects on April 5. The complementary presentations are open to bookings and all pre-sentations will be posted online after the event takes place. The general public is invited to par-ticipate.

“They [the speaker series] are all targeted at the general public. We have a team of brilliant stu-dents who are working on dis-tilling this subject into ordinary language and breaking it down into units. We’re trying to make it a publicly accessible resource,” says Murray.

For more information, please visit www.sfu.ca/engagingbigdata.

“It’s starting to show us a lot of things but it’s also starting to not show us a lot of things in terms of these types of algo-rithms, so it’s a new thing and what it’s going to turn into we don’t know,” says Peter Chow-White, associate professor, SFU School of Communication.

SFU’s Spring President’s Day Col-loquium aims to spark debate with a speaker series on Big Data, which began on Jan. 5 and runs until March 22. The speaker series, which takes place in the Burnaby SFU campus, is an in-terdisciplinary debate defining what big data is and what impli-cations it has on everyday life.

“Big data trends the use of al-gorithms to search and scrape data from the internet. The use of telephones and other types of surveillance tactics on the web these days have been developing for quite some time but are not

Global effect of big databy katE murraY vancement of technology is an

ever changing and ever expand-ing entity. The laws put in place are struggling to keep up and have little standing.

“Especially in a Canadian context for policymakers, the laws that gov-ern our privacy were made 20-some

Peter Chow-White, associate professor, SFU School of Communication.

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It feels as though everyone in India is an entrepreneur. A

fair assumption when travelling the country is that no product or service is too insignificant to bargain over. Even those al-ready in employ, such as IndiGo baggage charge collectors, ap-pear somewhat disappointed not to be cajoled. An expectant look, daring you to twist their arm, is included in the fare.

Enterprising ways give the-atrical and surprising turns to mundane chores. Groceries promise a thrilling twist. Ser-vicing your car can feel like a hostage crisis. A taxi ride can take more turns than the road even offers.

Take the example of my friends and I needing 10 bou-quets shortly before the start of a wedding.

At an otherwise nonde-script street corner, we found a busily-threading flower walla (shopkeeper) tending to two customers. Shekhar, the savvi-est amongst us, leads price nego-tiations around, and often over, enquiries from other passers-by. Meanwhile, our semi-attendant walla weaves vines and spar-kling ribbons around lavish hy-drangeas with the dexterity of Goddess Durga. After 10 minutes it all ends in a flurry and, before I know it, we’re back in our taxi high-tailing it down the street.

Do we really have time for this? I come all this way for an Indian wedding and spend the night in florist trade talks. Per-fect. Suddenly, we’re thrown forward as the taxi lurches into reverse and, back at the walla’s

Haggling in IndiaPostcard from India

makeshift worktable, he’s pre-paring our order with a juggler’s precision. I’m dumbfounded. What just happened?

It dawns on me: that was the negotiation! Worthy of a Penn & Teller finale, I was misdirected by what appeared to be a break-down when there was never any thought of us leaving the table, so to speak. Our bid was the abrupt-ness of that indignant wheel spin. As I rewind events, I marvel at the choreography – the window left down, the door not quite closed – that solicited an acceptable offer shouted from a block away.

How hard can it be? Awestruck and wanting a chance to lead the haggle, I visit Calangute’s street market to buy fruit. In my first of many mistakes, I pick out a piti-ful old woman on her haunches, encircling a bucket’s worth of produce, and ask for four orang-es and two bananas.

In my head I’m busy converting the price I’d expect to pay in Van-

couver into rupees and ready-ing myself for an exaggerated lob that I’ll undercut with gus-to. Game, set and match. So you can imagine my surprise when I snap back to find her unload-ing everything she’s got into my hands.

There are fruits I have never seen before and, I think, some rocks in there. As things turn pear-shaped, I come to the con-clusion she has launched a war of attrition; by offloading her medley of fruit and stones on me, she assumes I’ll give in to an ignorantly large offer.

My protestations fall on sud-denly – or perhaps genuinely – deaf ears, and my attempts to reiterate (in Hindi, mind you) my order are rebuffed by hand shooing and head rolling. Real-izing the situation is now be-yond saving, I pull the only ma-noeuver I can think of and make for the nearest escape, handing her rocks back as I turn.

Not guilefully, as I was shown by Shekhar, or presciently, as-suming she would reform her tactics, but out of sheer embar-rassment and failure. Whether insults, actual offers or the de-layed onset of pity for my feeble attempt, she shouts after me for what seems an eternity.

Wherever you may view yourself, or end up, on the hag-gle-o-meter, give it a whirl.

Who knows, maybe your neighbourhood grocer is up for sparring over the price of grapes, but nobody ever asked.

carl DEnSEmDelhi flower wallas at work.

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Tues. March 22nd 7:00pm Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre

*Canada’s submission for Best Foreign Film*at the 2016 Academy Awards

For more info about all our other upcoming films:www.vjff.org

Sponsered by

coming this spring

well known specifically to con-sumers,” says Catherine Murray, a professor at the SFU School of Communication.

Everybody should know about big data According to Murray, growth ve-locity is intensifying big data and is relevant to people today.

“I think that the pivotal point was the release of the Edward Snowden papers in 2013, when we realized the scope of what is done and conducted by the five major countries like the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany and France. ”

Murray adds that, because of these revelations, we are now starting to see the massive con-trol over our personal informa-tion that companies like Google, Facebook or Twitter actually have.

“They’re monetizing our per-sonal information at a level and rapidity that is just growing quicker every year,” she says.

Although the benefits of big

data collection are expansive, from its use in the medical field to mine data from DNA to cre-ate tailor-made healthcare, to businesses worldwide using it to optimize their social-marketing campaigns, only now is the sub-ject being scrutinized by larger entities, the most recent being the European Union.

One of the original creators of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, is amoung those raising concerns about Big Data and privacy.

“There was a really interesting article in the Economist by Tim Berners-Lee, who actually was very remorseful about the his-tory the Internet has taken; how its being commercialized and colonized, how it is essentially abusing personal information,” says Murray. “He argues for a massive global shift in big data governance and we’re solidly in support of that.”

The rate at which big data is developing is profoundly chal-lenging to monitor as the ad-


Vancouver-based artist Dana Claxton explores the life of In-digenous people in her artwork. Her new exhibition Made To Be Ready, which can be seen at SFU’s Audain Gallery, focuses on four selected video and photograph works depicting Indigenous women and cultural belongings.

The exhibition consists of two lightboxes, or fireboxes, as the art-ist calls them, named Cultural Be-longings and Headdress. The video, The Uplifting, and the silk curtains, or windbox prints in Buffalo Woman 1 and 2, complete the show. While the lightboxes are the exhi-bition’s centerpiece, the video and windbox were included because both the curator and the artist felt strong connections to them, due to their content, spiritual similarities and material differences.

Amy Kazymerchyk, the exhi-bition’s curator, says each work portrays the same woman, Sa-maya Jardey from the Lakota First Nations-Wood Mountain reserve in Saskatchewan, with whom Claxton has worked with in various projects for over 25 years. Kazymerchyk explains that although Claxton has a very large body of work, she felt the show needed to be sparse and thus focus on significant pieces: four works portraying a woman with cultural belongings.

“The woman in each of the im-ages has a very strong presence. Because each of the artworks is approximately life-size, when a visitor enters the gallery, they face each of the works as a single body,” says Kazymerchyk.

Meaningful installation The way the art works are in-stalled is crucial, according to Kazymerchyk.

An izakaya, which translates to “stay” and “sake shop,” is a lively and informal bar that serves Japanese fusion cuisine in tapas style. Izakaya restau-rants have been opening at a rapid pace all over the city, claiming a spot in Vancouver’s diverse culinary scene.

Traditional izakayas are vibrant places where customers are welcomed into the restaurant by someone shouting “irass-haimase” (“welcome” in Japa-nese). Both servers and cooks say it loudly, and with a smile, every time a new customer en-ters the restaurant. Indigenous women

and cultural belongings

Izakayas: a Japanese tradition in Vancouver

by SanDra ZimmErmann

by Eliano roSSi

A small Ikura Tapa, made with salmon eggs.

“One work is hung on each of the gallery’s four walls, each di-rectly across from the one par-allel. It creates a four-direction-al cross, which is an important part of the Lakota Sundance.”

The four figures face in a counter-clockwise circle, and Kazymerchyk explains that the show starts with the video of the woman in The Uplifting, who crawls from the entrance of the gallery towards the woman in Cultural Belongings, who is

“It took almost six years be-fore Vancouverites figured iza-kayas out. We did not change anything about the original atmosphere and the idea when importing this concept over,” says Hasegawa. “At the begin-ning people were confused by the tiny portions of the food and the menu itself. They could not find the food that they were expecting from a Japanese res-taurant.”

An izakaya might be the per-fect place to taste and sample Japanese fusion. It is a place to try starters like miso cream cheese, chopped tuna sashimi garnished with green onion and seaweed, a kabocha croquette (pumpkin and boiled egg), or mango cheese cake.

“Tapas are based on our tra-ditional cuisine, but chefs feel free to experiment with new flavours, mixing ingredients and tastes from other interna-tional cuisines like Italian, Ger-man, Spanish, Korean or Chi-nese,” says Hasegawa.

Try them out or try your hand at themAlmost 24 years after the first one opened in Vancouver, iza-kayas have become more popu-lar. Currently, there are more than two dozen izakaya restau-rants in Vancouver.

Evidence of their popularity can be seen by viewing the an-nual Dine Out Vancouver Festi-val guide. A handful of izakayas are taking part in it, giving Van-couverites multiple venues at which to try Japanese tapas.

For those who wish to not only taste tapas, but to learn how to make izakaya-style tapas, there are courses avail-able at The Nikkei Museum and

but perhaps even back at them-selves,” says Kazymerchyk.

In Made To Be Ready, Kazymer-chyk worked with Claxton for the first time, which she greatly enjoyed.

“I learned so much from Dana about how she approaches reading images, making images, imagining worlds through art and approaching criticism and encouragement in conversa-tion.”

Claxton, who is also an asso-ciate professor in the Depart-ment of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at UBC, has exhib-ited work internationally at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Indigenous belongings: more than just objectsKazymerchyk explains that the show’s title Made To Be Ready was suggested by Claxton, re-ferring to a philosophy regard-ing Indigenous cultural belong-ings. The curator says the title counters the notion that Indig-enous belongings, like drums, masks or baskets, are simply objects that are stolen, dis-played or studied by anthropol-ogists or explorers; these items are made to be used and have a purpose.

“These belongings are, in fact, made to be ready: to be danced, used in hunting and gathering, used in warfare, used in play, used in ritual, used to wear, used to travel,” explains Kazy-merchyk.

The exhibition is currently on display at SFU’s Audain Gallery until March 12.

For more information, please visit www.sfu.ca/galleries/ audain-gallery.html.

At the beginning people were confused by the tiny portions of the food and the menu itself.Takeshi Hasegawa, vice president of Kitanoya Guu

“

“In Japan, izakayas are a great place to have a drink after work with friends or colleagues, while eating good food,” says Takeshi Hasegawa, the vice president of Kitanoya Guu, the company that pioneered iza-kayas in Canada.

A slow awakeningHasegawa, 38, is originally from Nagoya and moved to Vancou-ver 15 years ago. Kitanoya Guu opened the very first izakaya restaurant in Vancouver in 1993 at a time when it was possible to find only traditional Japa-nese sushi or classic yakitori (grilled skewered chicken).

Cultural Centre in Burnaby. The centre organizes popular cook-ing classes with renowned lo-cal chefs to introduce people to this traditional food.

On Jan. 31, Chef Clifford Chi, who has worked in Guu restau-rants for more than a decade, will host a class that includes a lecture, cooking demonstration and tasting of recipes that com-bine f lavours and ingredients of Japan, Asia and Europe. The class is open to anyone willing to learn.

For more information, please visit centre.nikkeiplace.org and www.dineoutvancouver.com.

People can sit at the bar to watch the cooks prepare their food, or at the tables to enjoy the company of a group of friends. In more traditional izakayas, while waiting for the first drink to come, the customer receives an oshibori (wet towel) to clean hands and an otosmi (a little ap-petizer)before choosing from a variety of small dishes. Although some restaurants in Vancouver try to follow these traditions, others elect to skip these details.

half bent and faces the third work, Buffalo Woman, in a war-rior pose. Buffalo Woman in re-turn stands tall with her arms raised and offers the buffalo skull she carries to the woman in Headdress, the last piece of the exhibition.

The curator believes the show invites people to spend time with the works, and she sug-gests visitors go when not in a rush.

“I think the exhibition re-ally encourages visitors to look closely. Of course at the works,

Dana Claxton, Headdress, 2015. LED firebox with transmounted Lightjet Duratrans.

Dana Claxton, Cultural Belongings, 2015. LED firebox with transmounted Lightjet Duratrans.

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Spreading Garifuna music.

Musician at heart.

Honduras-based musician Au-relio will be performing vari-ous styles of Garifuna music, an integral part of the coastal Garifuna culture, on Jan. 31 at St. James Hall. While the songs are his own, Aurelio seeks to display and share the sound of his culture rather than his own voice as an individual.

Hailing from Honduras, Aure-lio Martinez has taken on a role as a kind of representative of Garifuna culture through shar-ing his music worldwide. Even as a child, Aurelio was met with early praise for his music. Com-ing from a very musical family in Plaplaya, Honduras, his father having been a well-known trou-badour, Aurelio learned how to sing from his mother. His uncles and his grandfather taught him how to play drums, the central element to Garifuna music, to which Aurelio gravitated and ex-celled at from a young age.

“From as young as eight, nine, ten years old, I was really good at Garifuna drum playing,” says Aurelio.

While most children were not even allowed in various sacred ceremonies, Aurelio could be seen performing at such events. By 14, he was considered a re-spectable Garifuna musician, well-versed in the culture and its music.

Aurelio:

Sharing Garifuna culture and musicby curtiS SEufErt

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have struggled to hold onto cul-ture, with food and music being the most central elements. With the Garifuna being a minority group in Honduras, it can be hard enough to keep the culture alive and well even within the country.

For Aurelio, although it is fame that helps his ultimate goal of sharing his people’s culture and music for the world to hear, his musical success has never been a matter of personal accomplish-ment.

“Our music isn’t individual, it’s community. When we write a song, we don’t see it as ‘some-body’ writing it. I don’t try to be a star; my music isn’t talking about

‘Aurelio Martinez,’ it’s about the Garifuna nation. It’s powerful music,” explains Aurelio.

While politics wasn’t originally seen as an option, a local mayor eventually encouraged Aurelio, being an already-prominent fig-ure to run for congress. Aurelio ended up winning, becoming the first Black congressman in Hon-duras, serving a four-year term in Honduran congress and do-ing his best to promote Garifuna culture. After a time, he decided politics wasn’t his calling.

“I tried to do my best to make change for our community,” he says. “But politics isn’t for me.”

In the end, Aurelio returned to his musical roots and has contin-ued to tour and share Garifuna culture and music with the world.

“We’re not going to let this cul-

Since then, Aurelio has con-tinued to grow as a musician, improving his musical ability by branching out into playing with latin ensembles, and eventually releasing GrupoGarifuna de Hon-duras with his band LitaAriran, a watershed for recorded Gari-funa music. He has since released four other solo and collabora-tive albums, toured internation-ally and performed with the likes of English R&B chanteuse Joss Stone and afropop legend YoussouN’Dour.

“Since I am a more interna-tional artist, for many here, Joss Stone is known better than me. So seeing this young artist from the U.K. here in our community, to see Joss Stone singing in Gari-funa language, we’re surprised!” says Aurelio.

Keeping Garifuna culture aliveThe Garifuna are people of Am-erindian and West African de-scent who live along the coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Since having been displaced from St. Vincent (in the West Indies) in 1796, they

ture die. I know I must continue my ancestors’ legacy and find new ways to express it. Few peo-ple know about it, but I adore it, and it’s something I must share with the world,” he says.

For more information on the event, visit www.capilanou.ca/calendar.aspx

For more on Aurelio, visit www.aureliomusic.net

ChorAL TAPESTryour Heritage of SongFebruary 22, 2016 at 8 p.m.Knox united Church400 Edmonton Street, Winnipeg The outstanding repertoire of north american choral music is based substantially on the models of musical immigrants from Europe. Jon Washburn and the Vancouver Chamber Choir illuminate many of these ties in this varied and invigorating concert of music from two continents.

repertoire

Healey Willan Behold, the tabernacle of God

artus aux-Cousteaux Missa grata sum harmonia

david Squires deep Peace

Steven Sametz The Heroine Triumphant

ola Gjeilo northern Lights

Samuel Barber agnus dei

Carl orff Four Choruses from Catulli Carmina

Florent Schmitt En bonnes voixJon Washburn rise! Shine!

Tickets are available online and at the door $15 - $20www.brownpapertickets.com


by aliSon cHiang

Exploring new worlds through film

Huff Stuff: Darkness and humour inhabit a dream world

When Lawrence Le Lam heard the story of his father, Lami Lam, a legendary DJ called Blue Jet who played banned anti-war rock and roll music in Tai-wan in the 1970s, he thought it would be a great idea for a film. The result was a 16 minute short film entitled The Blue Jet that would go on to win the BC Student Shortwork Award at the Whistler Film Festival. The Blue Jet will play at the Vancou-ver Short Film Festival (VSFF) from Jan. 29–30.

Le Lam, who graduated from Em-ily Carr University in film studies, says he thought the story would also work well as a feature film someday because there is so much to the story.

“They decided to play this kind of music because it was popular among the youth and also de-cided to make records and hold underground concerts,” says Le Lam.

A DJ revealed Le Lam grew up in Richmond, BC in a world of karaoke bars and bubble tea shops. When he was quite young his dad played rock and roll in the car.

“I always remember him sing-ing along to the songs,” says Le Lam.

Over time, Le Lam started asking questions. He eventu-ally found out that his father had played in a band when he was young, played bass and was also a radio DJ.

It’s all about the tough stuff, or Huff stuff, for playwright and performer Cliff Cardinal. Solvent abuse, sexual abuse and suicide are featured in his second play Huff, a story about what he feels young First Na-tions are going through. But Cardinal wants to let the audi-

“He’d say he was only allowed to play one hour of rock and roll a week, but he would play two,” Le Lam says.

The B.C. filmmaker originally wrote the script for The Blue Jet in 2014. His challenge was figur-ing out how to turn this story into a film.

At first, Lami Lam didn’t think anyone would be interested in his story, notes Le Lam. But later, he realized how interesting the story is.

“It’s not something he necessar-ily likes to boast about. I’m usu-ally the one telling people about it because I think it’s a cool thing,” says Le Lam.

Extraordinary characters One film that impacted Le Lam was based on the French book The Man Who Planted Trees. The short animated film of the same name is about a man who plants trees over a span of 30 years in a desolate area in the foothills of the French Alps to bring life back to the region.

“Throughout the story, you hear a lot about this extraordinary character, but you never really get to know him. You admire him from a distance,” Le Lam says.

Le Lam explains he thought that telling his dad’s story through a fan’s perspective would keep the mythos.

Memory, a strange thing“It’s funny how memory works because the way my dad tells the story there are some incon-sistencies with how he tells it and how it actually was. That’s an element I try to bring into the

ence have their own interpre-tation.

“I think that First Nations kids who abuse solvents is really far out there- that expression you can’t see the forest through the trees… By doing our best to em-pathize with that perspective, es-pecially with them, we get to see ourselves from a very unique per-

film where the narrator tells you one thing, but you see something else,” says Le Lam.

Le Lam wants to find out about these different worlds he hasn’t been to that also fall within the worlds that he’s seen, such as the

spective – some beautiful things and some of our unattractive angles,” says Cardinal, who wrote Huff about four or five years ago.

Huff is a one-man play about a young boy named Wind and his two brothers who experiment with solvents, and deals with the taboo topic of suicide. Cardinal himself performs over twelve characters in the play.

Cardinal, an indigenous art-ist based in Toronto, says he felt compelled to write a play about startling subject matter.

“It’s a scary subculture, which has invoked fear in me,” says Car-dinal.

Finding his voiceThough Cardinal dropped out of high school at age 15, he later re-turned to study playwriting at the National Theatre of Canada in Montreal. Acting runs in the family – Cardinal’s mother, Tan-too Cardinal, is a well-known ac-tress.

“My mom sent me to the back-stage of the VideoCabaret in Montreal. They were doing their history plays, so my tenth grade was spent in the back of a theatre watching rehearsals,” he says.

Huff is Cardinal’s second solo play. His first play, Stitch, a one-woman show about a single mom who worked in porn, debuted at Toronto’s Summerworks Festi-val in 2011. Cardinal’s original in-tention was to write a show for his sister, but she didn’t end up doing a lot of acting in the pro-duction.

“It was my first play, so I was finding my voice. It had its own Cliff Cardinal plays over twelve characters in Huff.

by florEncE Hwang

Asian and North American cross-ings.

Le Lam says he wants to work with Asian Canadian performers he’s met through his film project in part because they don’t appear in film enough. His first priority,

however, is to explore the Asian North American world around him and find the right people to represent their stories.

For more information, visit www.vsff.com.

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Our Group Job Search Work-shops are a flexible, 5 module rotat-ing program, running weekly, with 16 sessions each month. This in-cludes basic computer orientation, with instruction on using Word and Excel, and accessing the Internet. Workshops are held within a cul-turally diverse environment, led by qualified facilitators.

Past and current E.I. receipients are always welcome. Knowledge-able case managers are available to guide you through the process of reaching your career goals.

PICS Vancouver also offers one-on-one employment assistance, paid on-the-job work experi-ence through our Wage Subsidy program, and a one-stop Career Centre with a broad range of job hunting resources. Funding for all programs is provided by the Ministry of Social Development, Employment and Labour Market Services Division.

Please call 604-324-7733, go to www.pics.bc.ca, or visit us at 200-8161 Main St., Vancouver, to find out how we can best help you.

Need the skills to find a job? We can help!drive and what I was doing was

learning to craft a story and write,” Cardinal says.

The positive reception of Stitch, which included winning awards, encouraged him to write another play. The process didn’t quite go as planned, but Cardinal thinks if people are compelled to tell a story or make a piece of art, they will find a way to do it.

“It’s weird that I set out to make something that is very beauti-ful and I never accomplish it; it’s always weird and awkward and a bit ugly and a bit loveable. To actually see yourself, myself, in a piece of art was a bit shocking,” he explains.

The audience’s roleCardinal says Huff has proved to be a positive experience.

“I wrote it – it’s my voice in the world and I can actually hear it-as reflected by the audience. It’s been a defining challenge in my career,” he explains.

The interaction with the au-dience is very important, albeit the subject matter may not come easily for some, says Cardinal.

“It’s a dark play. I personally need a dark story, a dark piece of art, unified by pain, and not ev-erybody goes for it,” he adds.

Cardinal wants the audience to make their own interpreta-tion. For him, a play doesn’t truly become a play until it meets the audience.

Huff will be featured at the Firehall Arts Centre Feb. 2–6.

For more information, please visit www.firehallartscentre.ca.

Stills from The Blue Jet.

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Toronto-based soprano Neema Bickersteth performs Century Song, a hybrid work of film, song and dance that explores the identities and roles experi-enced by a woman throughout the 20th century, in an effort to “inform one’s own identity” as it links to the past. The per-formance will be held at the Cultch theatre from Feb. 2 to Feb. 6 as part of the PuSh In-ternational Performing Arts Festival.

The show features a series of classical songs performed by Bickersteth along with projec-tions of shifting visuals that paint a vivid picture of her char-acter travelling through time.

“It’s kind of like a theatricalized recital,” Bickersteth explains.

In preparation for the perfor-mance Bickersteth began to ex-plore questions about her own heritage as research for the char-acter.

“As I was singing the first piece by Rachmaninoff, I realized I was singing it as if I was a white Euro-pean – and that was the perspec-tive I had taken to become these characters. I don’t think about becoming whatever a black woman would have been in that day. From there, I started to ask, who really is this woman going through time?”

Singing through timeGrowing up in a small town in Alberta, Bickersteth is a first-generation Canadian who began singing lessons at age 8.

With parents emigrating from Sierra Leone in the 1960s, Bicker-steth’s curiosity about the reali-ties faced by those with her heri-tage throughout the 20th century began to emerge while develop-ing the repertoire for Century Song.

“As a first generation Canadian, it’s not quite like being an immi-grant, but there are unique ques-tions to ask when it comes to un-derstanding your past, and fully linking this to your identity now.”

One of Bickersteth’s inspira-tions for the show is a photo-graph of her great, great grand-mother.

A song for the centuryby EliSE VarlEY

on a passage over the Atlantic Ocean to Newfoundland. Sad-ly, Great-Great Grandmother never saw Canada, as she died on the ship, leaving her seven children orphaned to the State. Irish Great-Grandma was

“placed” in service until she married, much like an Anne of Green Gables story, except the view out her window was not of rolling hills, but of the sugar re-finery, just off Powell Street in East Vancouver.

When everyone from north-ern British Columbia had trick-led down to Vancouver, the last family members, from my dad’s side, were emigrating from Eu-rope, at that time on the cusp

“Verbatim” from page 1 Fast forward about 30 years, and both families had settled in Vancouver – on the same street, four doors down from each oth-er. My mom and dad met as high school sophomores, and I came along about 10 years later. So for everyone who has thought I am Irish, Welsh, British, Italian, Ger-man or Polish, you were right. If the Gold Rush had never hap-pened and if war had been stayed in Europe, my families would nev-er have touched North American soil and met each other. I might still exist in some form, but no-where near the unique mix I am today, which is a truly Vancouver recipe. My roots may not have started in Vancouver, but I am definitely of Vancouver.

of the Second World War. Great Grandfather was a writer for a local paper and criticized the Nazi uprising in his homeland in an editorial. No one really talks about how much trouble he got into for saying what he felt, but the last photo of them as a fam-ily is them leaving for a steam-er ship in the dead of winter with Great Grandmother seven months pregnant with my grand-father. I can’t quite imagine their shock when they arrived from a bustling, modern, European city to middle-of-nowhere Saskatch-ewan, but I’m sure the isolation and hardship was nothing com-pared to the fate that awaited them as political prisoners in one of Hitler’s death camps.

“In the photo she’s standing alone in a very european-cut dress, but the material is afri-can. And I began to ask, who is this woman? Where did she come from? Who did she belong to? I feel like those questions really fed into how this piece came into being.”

Starting at around 1915, the performance chronicles what life would have been like through the decades of the 20th century, pay-ing homage to the past’s struggle and uniqueness.

“I am Canadian, I am a woman, and I am black, and today I sing opera,” says Bickersteth. “We can tell stories from our own per-

spective and it’s about what we have to say within our own jour-neys that is reflected in all of us.”

Other inspiration for the show was taken from two pieces of literature with parallel themes. Virginia Wolfe’s novel Orlando, and an essay by Alice Walker, In search of our mother’s gardens.

Both of these works chronicle an exploration of identity by travelling through time and re-flecting on the past.

“Something that really inspires me in Alice Walker’s essay is this idea of an inner artist. Like the search of my own identity through this piece, this woman

eventually makes her way to the state of ‘now.’”

For Bickersteth, Century Song revealed some very personal insights into understanding her identity as a performer:

“One of my biggest realizations was that I can be the protagonist in a story. As an actress, I am of-ten a slave or some stereotypical black female character. That is fine, but I’m not that person. I’m Neema who lives in Canada, and I can be someone that the audi-ence connects to.”

Music as wordsBickersteth’s performance fea-tures a range of classical works by Rachmaninoff, John Cage and an original piece by Cana-dian composer Reza Jacobs. Each new song moves the character towards a new direction, and chronicles a different piece of the identity making up the charac-ter’s history.

Jacobs points out that a unique aspect of Century Song is that all the music is wordless, a style of singing known as vocalese.

“With vocalese, we want to cov-er an emotional palate, and there is certainly a virtuosic element to this. Since there are no words and just vowels, it’s about the musical lines and the emotion re-ally comes through.”

While Bickersteth is the main performer, a pianist and percus-sionist join to link the different stages of the performance.

“I would describe it as an opera recital remixed and on steroids,” says Jacobs.

For more information, visit www.pushfestival.ca

One of my biggest realizations was that I can be the protagonist in a story.Neema Bickersteth, black actress and soprano

“

Neema Bickersteth.


Anthropologies Imaginaires, an avant-garde experimental vo-cal show by musician Gabriel Dharmoo, was awarded Best International Production at the Amsterdam Fringe Festi-val in 2015, and is now being presented at the PuSh Interna-tional Performing Arts Festi-val from Feb. 1–2.

“Anthropologies Imaginaires is a live art and vocal performance,” says Dharmoo, composer, im-proviser and researcher of eth-nomusicology. “I’ve been explor-ing imaginary folklore for many years and, as a composer, I want to deal with questions about eth-nicity and post-colonialism.”

A conceptual art-thropology“Whimsical, intriguing and in-novative” is how Dharmoo de-scribes his show and his work.

Dharmoo is alone on the stage with a video projection and a screen behind him showing in-terviews of experts talking about different ways of singing over the world. And Dharmoo vocally illustrates those ways.

“The storyline is presented as if specialists have been invited to talk about some populations by a museum that is showcasing dif-ferent cultures in spite of a tradi-tional exhibition.”

Dharmoo says he makes his art accessible and challenging, but

Vocal Art-thropologyby Hakim fErria “People who have big problems

with what I’m doing and think it’s true feel uncomfortable be-cause what I’m doing is unethical. But when they realize it is a sat-ire, they allow themselves to see it as a satire.”

Ánthrōpos and logosAnthropology is the study of hu-manity, and the noun is derived from the Greek words ánthrōpos and logos, meaning human and speech, respectively. This is ex-actly what Dharmoo claims to do when studying, talking about and showcasing people: use the medium of his voice.

Dharmoo’s mother is French Canadian, and his father was born in Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean where there is a high percentage of Indian ances-try.

“I’ve always `hbeen interested in India,” says Dharmoo. “I’ve been to different countries to look at their traditional music. I learned a lot in India; it was in-tensive, but I feel I still have a lot to discover.”

The process of sharing with musicians from other countries is part of his art.

“Artists have mutual respect, something really magical, a kind of spiritual connection through music. We have a lot of things in common,” says Dharmoo.

Dharmoo wants to bring forth an awareness about how people sing differently. He says there is

Gabriel Dharmoo.

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also entertaining; Anthropolo-gies Imaginaires makes people laugh about very serious issues.

“I am just an artist. I am not an anthropologist, or a thinker, in the way I give people answers.”

Dharmoo likes the transforma-tion of the audience mind – when someone comes in and thinks what is presented is true and then realizes it’s not.

not just one right way of singing, as there is not just one way of thinking.

Dharmoo says people already have their own ideas on many things, so he just gives another point of view, hoping to use fic-tion to reveal some reality.

For more information, please visit www.pushfestival.ca


Lost Words: Political EditionJan. 26The Emerald Lounge555 Gore Ave., Vancouverwww.pitheatre.com

Lost Words is a series focused on banned, censored and controversial plays, and what makes them like that. Whether they’re written to be negative towards a party in power, or become investigated for what they produce, their stories and produc-tions will be shared in this showing of banned and controversial works.

* * *Yiddish GloryJan. 27Richmond Hill Centre for Performing Arts10268 Yonge St., Richmondwww.rhcentre.ca

A few years ago in Kiev, Ukraine, archivists in the manuscript de-partment of the Ukrainian Na-tional Library found a number of sealed boxes. They held hand-written Yiddish documents con-taining thousands of songs writ-ten by Yiddish speaking Jews in Ukraine during World War II. Joseph Stalin’s authorities seized the papers and sealed them, seemingly destroying them for-ever. Now these songs will be per-formed for the first time in almost 70 years at the Richmond Hill Cen-tre for Performing Arts.

* * *Sam Sullivan’s Public Salon 24Jan. 27Vancouver Playhouse600 Hamilton St., Vancouverwww.globalcivic.org

The Public Salons are presented by the Global Civic Policy Society as a way to present, listen, discuss and promote ideas that can entertain

by jakE mcgrail

January 26–February 9, 2016

and be of use in the community. The 24th edition of the Public Salon will feature an author, a poet, a TV host, a radio broadcaster, a micro-biologist, a marathoner and more.

* * *The 28th Annual Massacre Improv FestivalJan. 27–Feb. 13Vancouver TheatreSports League1502 Duranleau St., Vancouverwww.vtsl.com

The Vancouver TheatreSports League is an internationally re-nowned theatre company that is recognized as one of the best pro-ducers of improvisational talent. The Massacre Improv Festival is back as teams from renowned the-atre companies from both Canada and abroad compete in what will be a funny and fantastic competition.

* * *Mount Pleasant Community/Public Art JamJan. 28Heritage Hall3102 Main St., Vancouver

The Mount Pleasant Business Im-provement Association is inviting its members along with local art-ists, businesses and organizations to share what they think could be fun and engaging displays of pub-lic art. Bring your creativity and ideas to the discussion on how to improve the area.

* * *New Impressions: Making the Common, Exceptional with Julie McIntyreJan. 30ArtStarts Gallery808 Richards St., Vancouverwww.artstarts.com

ArtStarts puts on free arts-based workshops where kids and fami-lies can learn from great artists

in fun 45-minute workshops. The next workshop is with Ju-lie McIntyre and is focused on printmaking. Learn how to make fantastic prints using basic ma-terials and equipment around your home.

out history. Alongside of objets d’art from Europe and North Amer-ica are paintings from artists in-cluding Vilhelm Arnesen, Abraham Hulk and Carl Frederik Sorenson.

* * *Science of CocktailsFeb. 4TELUS World of Science1455 Quebec St., Vancouverwww.scienceworld.ca

For only one night the Science of Cocktails will make Science World into Vancouver’s largest cocktail laboratory. This fundraising event (for Science World’s Class Field Trip Program), invites you to sample unique, crafted cocktails from local bartenders alongside delicious food pairings from Railtown Catering.

* * *Yamato, the Drummers of JapanFeb. 6Queen Elizabeth Theatre630 Hamilton St., Vancouverwww.yamatodrummers.com

Taiko is a musical instrument deeply entrenched in Japanese culture, and the Yamato Drum-mers of Japan will be bringing their electrifying and dynamic music to Vancouver in this one night only exposition of ath-leticism, theatrics, agility and speed.

* * *Family Day at Fort Langley National Historic SiteFeb. 6–8Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada23433 Mavis Ave., Fort Langley

A fun family adventure for Fam-ily Day weekend, Fort Langley National Historic site will be hosting a fun day of activities for all. From exploring the chores and work of a 19th century fam-ily to watching blacksmith and coopering demonstrations to participating in the family scav-enger hunt there will be plenty of fun for everyone.

cultural Helping House Society (MHHS) in Vancouver to orga-nize a place to stay and access settlement services to help him adjust to Canadian culture and customs.

MHHS is a non-profit society that helps immigrants integrate into the community through ori-entations, training and social as-sistance. Hossain is involved with their youth settlement program, that gives him access to work-shops, advisors and mentors.

Volunteering fastest way to make connectionsMHHS introduced Hossain to vol-unteering.

“I’m grateful to be living in a country like Canada where you can volunteer, says Hossain. “As a volunteer, I have gained work

“Integration” from page 1 friendships and learn about Ca-nadian culture.

“I’m not a very outgoing person. Volunteering forces me to talk to strangers, which is good for me.” says Hossain.

Arts programs shine a light on youth settlement in B.C.Richard Carpiano is a profes-sor for the Department of Soci-ology at UBC and an expert on social capital, social networks and communities. He explains that immigrants are faced with a number of challenges once they arrive in Vancouver. They need to make new connections to de-velop a sense of belonging.

“Immigrants need access to so-cial services like child care, af-fordable housing, employment that fits their skill sets and the ability to assimilate through cul-

experience and an employment reference.”

Volunteering is an important part of the settlement process for many immigrants. For Hossain, volunteering at Universal Reloca-tions Services turned into a job offer after only a few weeks. Now he can focus on his next chal-lenge – finding affordable accom-modation in Vancouver.

Hossain also enjoys volunteer-ing at the Richmond Animal Pro-tection Society Cat Sanctuary. Feeding and cleaning up after these furry felines forces Hos-sain to practise his English lan-guage skills. During each shift, he observes the animals for signs of distress and it’s important for him to be able to share his find-ings with other staff members. These interactions create oppor-tunities for Hossain to build new

tural connections or activities like art, culture or even sports,” says Carpiano.

Non-profit organizations like MHHS, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and MOSAIC all have settlement programs to support immigrants and refu-gees. These organizations ad-dress a need in B.C. communities to help newcomers feel they are a part of their community.

Rubin Mudhar, a coordinator for youth programs at MOSAIC, oversees workshops like The NuYu (meaning Newcomer Youth) Popular Theatre Program. Up to 20 youth aged between 14 and 24 enrol each term. The last produc-tion was called, “My Challenges Coming to Canada,” which allows youth to explore their personal challenges of immigration in a community forum of teachers, parents and friends.

“It’s an awesome place for youth to meet new people, prac-tise their English, and share some of the challenges they’re going through as a newcomer to Canada,” says Mudhar.

Finding connections within a community is an important part of the settlement process for all newcomers. Immigra-tion services provide guidance and options, but to truly un-derstand Canadian culture and feel a sense of belonging new-comers need to venture out on their own to access community activities like sports, arts and culture.

“Settlement takes [for] new-comers a lot of perseverance and determination,” says Choo.

“Don’t feel discouraged. Cana-dians are very welcoming and ready to accept you.”

Print made by Julie McIntyre.

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Yamato Drummers of Japan.

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* * *Open Waters: Marine PaintingFeb. 1–29Uno Langmann Limited Fine Art2117 Granville St., Vancouverwww.langmann.com

This exhibition explores marine painting, a record of design, inven-tion, battles and voyages through-


Running the risk of putting you all off my writing, today I’ll give you a love it or hate it recipe: Po Cha, or Tibetan Butter Tea. In the highlands of Tibet this is a staple drink, served three to four times a day to warm the bones and provide enough sustenance (caffeine, fat) to last the day and save you from horribly chapped lips. Traditionally made with yak butter, this savoury version of your after-noon brew is easily replicated with goat’s milk, even if you don’t own a churn. It’s pos-sible to make butter tea with your regular cow’s butter and cream, but switching to whole fat goat’s milk instead will give you an earthier taste more similar to yak than cow. All you need is a very strong black tea, preferably of the smokey kind. Tibetans use tea from the Pemagul area and cook their brew down till very,

Tibetan butter tea

Royal Sweet Diamond, a bronze sculpture by Canadian artist Joe Fafard, is the name of this life-size bull at the corner of Georgia and Richards Streets in downtown Vancouver. Viewing the bull, it does seem to exhibit a sweet disposition. It would seem more natural in a pasto-ral situation rather than in the bustling scene in which it finds itself. Looking across the street at the new Telus Garden, one wonders if it is focusing on the red lights displayed and will be-come provoked. This, of course, is part of the beauty of the bull in this setting. It makes us fo-cus on the stark contrasts of the pastoral versus the metropolis.

Telus Garden is also display-ing green. This photo was taken around Christmas time, hence

the red and green. But green has a special meaning for the new Telus Garden that would have us believe they have brought the pasture to the city. In many ways they have made a valiant attempt.

The Telus complex takes up nearly a whole city block be-tween Georgia and Robson and Richards and Seymour Streets. It was a cooperative effort between Telus, Henriquez Architects, and real estate developer Westbank. There are 24 floors of office space facing Georgia St. and 54 floors of a residential complex on the Robson St. side, as well as re-tail space on the street level.

For environmental sustainabil-ity, it features 300 solar panels, the largest number on a Vancou-ver building. Its energy efficient system reduces demand from

conventional sources by 80 per cent and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million kilos a year. There are 10,000 square feet of outdoor garden space on various upper levels, some of which grow produce. Rainwater is recaptured, recycled and used to irrigate these spaces. Of special note is a system that provides fresh air rather than recycled air, which is a great health benefit for of-fice workers. These features and others have gained Telus Garden Leed Platinum certification. All this should put a blush on Royal Sweet Diamond’s face, knowing the large amounts of byproducts resulting from raising cattle like methane, carbon dioxide and massive water use.

There are also some unique architectural features like the

beautiful 300-foot steel and bee-tle wood canopy that extends a whole city block on Georgia St. It has been likened to a blue whale’s spine and ribs. It provides a unique public space that begins inside the lobby of the main office building and extends outside in front of that part of the building that houses the Glowbal restau-rant. The canopy roof features 302 panes of curved blue glass from Spain, each unique and etched with a leaf and branch motif. The inspiration for the canopy was Emily Carr’s Cathedral.

Another unique architectural feature are two cantilevered office spaces that extend 6.5 m over Richards St. and 7.3 m over Seymour St. Some feel this is a dangerous usurpation of public space. Telus leases this air space

from the city of Vancouver for about $9,600/year.

All in all, it’s a unique archi-tectural achievement with a lot of positive environmental features. It’s an expensive pro-totype and this is reflected in what have become typical high-end market prices for the project’s condos. What would be wonderful to see in the near future is affordable housing with all these green features. And Royal Sweet Diamond would love to see some pasture he could access outside on the street level.

To learn more about Royal Sweet Diamond’s creator, see www.joefafard.com

Don Richardson

very strong. Yak butter and salt are added and the mixture is churned for several minutes to reach a creamy consistency. For a homemade version the tea can be replaced with other strong, smokey black teas like Lapsang Souchong. Add butter, salt and goat’s milk and blend together. Really, try it. It’s delicious.

Ingredients• 4 cups of water• smoky black tea,

like Lapsang Souchong• 1/4 tsp salt• 2 tbs butter (unsalted,

cow’s milk)• 1/3 cup goat’s milk

Method1. Boil the water and simmer

with the tea bags until very strong, for at least 10 minutes.

2. Pour into blender, add milk, butter, and salt and blend to-gether for about 3 minutes.

3. Serve hot.

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Street Photography by Denis Bouvier

Recipe by Selma van Halder

A lot of bull!

Warm yourself with a cub of Po Cha.

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